Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
Ver. 1. Then answered Eliphaz, the Temanite, and said] Lapides locutus est. In this second encounter Eliphaz falls upon Job, not so much with stronger arguments as with harder words; reproving him sharply, or rather reproaching him bitterly, Facundia quadam canina, with more eloquence than charity. So hard a thing is it, saith Beza, especially in disputing and reasoning, to avoid self-love, as even in these times experience daily teacheth us. He hinteth, I suppose, at the public conference between himself and Jacobus Andreas at Mompelgard, whereby the strife was rather stirred than stinted, as Thuanus complaineth (Lib. 35, Hist.); or else at the disputation at Possiacum, wherein Beza, speaker for the Protestant party (before the queen mother of France, the young King Charles, and many princes of the blood), entering into the matter of the Eucharist, spake with such heat (unless the historian wrongs him), that he gave but ill satisfaction to those of his own side, so that he was commanded to conclude. Such meetings are seldom successful, saith Luther, because men come with confidence and wit for victory rather than verity. In this reply of Eliphaz to Job we may see what an evil thing it is to be carried away with prejudice and pertinance, which make a man forget all modesty, and fall foul upon his best friends. Here is enough said to have driven this sorrowfull man into utter despair, had not God upheld his spirit, while he is fiercely charged for a wicked man, and hated of God; neither doth any of his friends henceforth afford him one exhortation to repentance, or one comfortable promise, as Lavater well observeth, Non affert ullam consolationem, non invitat eum ad poenitentiam; sed potius ad desperationem compellat.